It's a place where University of Nevada, Reno students study, meet with professors and peers and spend countless hours fiddling away at their computers in earnest. It's where computer training labs and multi-player gaming events take place, and it also happens to be where the occasional student can oftentimes be found sleeping. It is known as the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. It is well understood by students, staff and faculty that the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, since opening in 2008, has provided the campus with far more than a place to merely house books. Just recently, the Knowledge Center was recognized for its multitude of uses.

In a collection of photographs taken by library technician Nick Crowl, the University's Knowledge Center took first place in the "Share your Library!" contest. The contest was sponsored by Serials Solutions, a global leader in e-resource management.

"We loved seeing the way your library serves as a robust center for research, learning and so much more," the website said of the Knowledge Center.

Crowl sifted through several thousand photographs with Tod Colegrove, head of the DeLaMare Science and Engineering Library in the University's Mackay Mines Building, until they narrowed it down to pictures that they believed displayed the best qualities of both libraries. 

"For the Knowledge Center, winning this competition was about promoting our ideas on 'the modern library,'" Crowl said. "We always hope that other libraries will see the methods of our success and become inspired to try their own ideas."

The competition took place during National Library Week, April 8 through 14. Each library had the chance to win an Apple iPod Nano.

"The win is confirmation not only of Nick's talent, but of the library itself," Colegrove said. "The University has a lot to be proud of as it continues to raise the bar nationally in terms of what a library can be."